The one rock band Bruce Springsteen said is out of everybody’s league: “American masterworks”
The music industry is a game of opinions, and subjectivity is a vital reason why it remains an untouchable cultural cornerstone. However, one person whose wealth of knowledge is indisputable is Bruce Springsteen; he has lived and breathed the art form since childhood, devoting his life towards songwriting.
Over the course of the last 50 years, Springsteen has carefully laboured to master his craft, becoming an internationally renowned megastar in the process. While he’s worked countless hours to get to this position, ‘The Boss’ is still a passionate music fan who soaks up as much new material as possible.
As he recently showed by appearing alongside Zach Bryan and Maggie Rogers at Madison Square Garden in New York, Springsteen still keeps his ears to the ground for new talents. However, as much as he gets a kick from discovering a new song, he firmly remains under the belief that no act will hit the same heights as The Beach Boys regarding musicianship.
Coming of age during the 1960s, Brian Wilson and his Californian bandmates played a pivotal role in these critical years of his life and continue to occupy a special place in his heart.
For Springsteen, The Beach Boys represented far more than a successful pop group. Their records demonstrated how ambitious arrangements and emotional honesty could coexist within seemingly effortless songs, a lesson that would influence countless artists who followed.
Springsteen has also been fortunate enough to live out his teenage fantasy of becoming an honourable member of The Beach Boys. Notably, in 2015, he watched Wilson perform in New Jersey, and towards the end of the set, Springsteen appeared on-stage to perform ‘Surfin USA’ with his musical idol hero.
While this wasn’t the first time they had performed together, it was a pinch-yourself moment for Springsteen, who couldn’t help but lose his cool and let himself get soaked in ecstasy.
Their first meeting came in 2007, as Wilson recollected in his memoir, I Am Brian Wilson: “I was playing a benefit show at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey. The whole time we were playing our show, there was a guy sitting in a folding chair on the side of the stage.”
Much to his surprise, it was Springsteen with the chair, and his demeanour greatly shocked Wilson. He recollected how The Boss was “so quiet there on the side of the stage” and claimed it “was almost like he was taking notes” of the performance. Following the show, Wilson said the pair “hung out for a little while”, and Springsteen was full of praise for his body of material, describing it as “American masterworks”.
The admiration between the two musicians was mutual. While Springsteen viewed Wilson as one of popular music’s greatest visionaries, Wilson recognised in The Boss the same unwavering commitment to craftsmanship and storytelling that had defined his own approach to songwriting.
Of course, Wilson is very well accustomed to receiving plaudits. Famously, according to Paul McCartney, the Beach Boys leader is responsible for producing the greatest song of all time ‘God Only Knows’. Additionally, Bob Dylan once complimented his ear for melody, suggesting he “donate it to the Smithsonian”.
Nevertheless, Wilson was equally overawed by Springsteen’s kind words, noting of his compliment, “It was nice of him to say. He has written some himself”.
Springsteen also went on the record to share his love for Wilson’s material. The New Jersey hero appeared in the documentary Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road and said of the former Beach Boy: “[He] just took you out of where you were and took you to another place.”
He continued: “There’s no greater world created in rock and roll than the Beach Boys; the level of musicianship, I don’t think anybody’s touched it yet.”
While The Beach Boys’ creative peak was brief compared to peers such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, their impact can’t be overstated. Pet Sounds single-handedly forced the entire music industry to raise the bar, and their inventiveness remains almost unmatched. Although they set a high creative precedent, which they couldn’t maintain, the musical history books would be significantly less rich without their heavenly recordings.
Springsteen’s praise ultimately speaks to the enduring legacy of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys. Their commercial success alone would have secured their place in music history, but it is the emotional depth and musical innovation of their finest recordings that continue to inspire generations of artists, decades after they first reshaped the possibilities of pop music.
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